Running and life - both moving you forward and yet you always seem to return home.

I have been reading everyone blogs that I normally read and many, many others. Plus a bunch of running related sites. Plus working at work - I know, what's up with that?

Anyway here is the rundown in bullet form

Last Friday night I went to Foellinger Auditorium at saw the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra. It was awesome. Instead of just Mozart or Brahms played as wrote, they jazzed things up with a Celtic flair. And they played originals with dancer and singers. It was a good time for me and girlfriend.

Marathon training last Saturday was well worth the drive to Chicago. Did you know parking meters there are 25 cents for 7 minutes. Damn!. So I risked it and did not get caught. Training - awesome, given a physical therapist. She used me as the class dummy and I have to say I did well. If she put her hand on my ass one more time I was going to make her buy me pizza. Afterall, I easy, not cheap. It was/is a great training for TNT. My understanding is Illinois may be the only state to train their coaches.

Sunday - supposed to be my makeup long run. Guess what? Yay, no run. Did work around the house a little. Did my favorite thing and looked at open houses in the area. Just makes me thankful I have the place I do when I see these little patches of grass and houses not much bigger than mine for 400k.

Wednesday was track practice. I had a different team member show up and come out. That was an awesome thing. I ran 3.5 miles at tempo. Last 2 weeks I had run at a 9:18 pace. This time I was doe to a 9:06 pace for 3.5 miles. Time to up the distance to at least 4 and see how I do. I may try that on Saturday. Run the short out and back twice in a low 9 pace.

Last night my boyz came by the man-cave to watch our Fightin Illini have a game well under control to only go cold the last 5 minutes and let the other team win. We really need a finisher on this team. No one wants to step up and be the man on this team. I can't wait for next year with the man-boys we got coming in.

This Saturday - long run, up to 18 miles. I really, really need to get a long run in. I haven't done one since my marathon last June. The spring team is doing 18, so I will run with them for 5 and then run with my team for their 5 and hopefully get another 5 in after them. That's the plan.

Ok, you are caught up and I am caught up in all your blogs. Even stevens. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Bwaahaaa!!!!

Oh yeah, one more thing. This has been weighing on me tremendously lately. I am not a fast runner. I am not a good runner. But I really want to run Boston. I thought about cheating and fund raisiing my way in. But how would that make me feel. I want to earn it. I want to know that I deserve to be there. It means running a 3:30 qualifier. It means run 8 minute miles.

I can run an 8 mile. I might be able to run 2.2 of them back to back. But what about the other 24. That is the issue. I believe this is why I have pushed my track practice so hard. It is working. If I pull a 4:30 or better in April, it might be game on.

I know some of you are planty fast enough but how about others that are slow like me (4:55 PR). Do any of you have an inkling to do Boston? To attempt the pinnacle of American marathoning if not top of the world? I know if I did qualify then the pressure I would put on myself to do well in the race itself would be huge. Am I fantasizing too much? Afterall, I will be 46 next month, I was never a high school or college runner. I am just Joe Average Couch Potatoe reaching for a dream.

What a great goal! It's good to push yourself, but training to that level I think would take a lot of time and patience. One of my friends ran her first marathon last year around 4:25 and she's training to qualify for boston this summer at around a 3:40. I'd like to think of it someday, but right now I'm just enjoying the running and pushing myself to at least beat my first marathon time.